“Too easy to just pretend you’re a woman,” Martina Navratilova fights alongside JK Rowling over oppose to inclusion of trans people in women’s sports

Ever so vocal Martina Navratilova has yet again expressed her reservations against including trans people in women’s sports as the former American tennis ace has stood in solidarity with renowned author JK Rowling. As the author of the famous book Harry Potter faced backlash for her comments about not agreeing to the notion that trans women are women, Navratilova stood in solidarity. 

Martina defended Rowling, as the British writer was called transphobic over her social media post about trans women. It is worth mentioning that Rowling shared a picture that had the text “Repeat After Us: Trans women are women” and captioned it “No”. 

This drew criticism from users on social media who accused Rowling of transphobia. It was then Navratilova jumped to the writer’s defence claiming that she was just stating a fact. This comment from Navratilova got quite a few responses with one of the users saying that being mean to others while stating a fact is not impressive. 

Navratilova was not one to hold back as she replied to the user. “Ok then. Seems ok with women having to take a step back. I am not,” said Navratilova. This opinion of Navratilova was again called out by a user saying that accepting that trans women are women does not take away anyone’s rights.

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Martina Navratilova explains how putting trans women in women’s sports affects others

This claim from the user prompted a strong reply from Martina Navratilova who explained how putting trans women in the same bracket as women affects other chances. The former world no.1 tennis player further explained that allowing trans women in the same locker room as women puts the latter at a direct risk. 

“Putting them in women’s categories takes away places in competitions from women so yes, there is a direct effect. Putting them in locker rooms puts girls and women at risk- again, direct. Too easy to just pretend you are a woman and viola- the doors are open. Not ok,” explained Navratilova. 

This is not the first time Martina Navratilova has openly voiced her opinion against this act of counting trans women as women. In fact, Navratilova strongly opposed such a move. She called it cheating. “It’s insane and it’s cheating. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair,” Navratilova wrote in one of her columns a few years back.

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